Chapter II: Part 2

2. God is the Supreme Lord of all creation, and Author of our being. His Will should be the absolute law of all created beings. But as He made men and angels in the plenitude of freedom, He gave them wills, wills wholly free, and He set before them His law as the way of happiness, revealing to angels and men that so long as they conformed their wills to His Will they would be happy. Men and angels, though created free, were for all that dependent on God; but certain angels, with Satan at their head, revolted--they set their wills in opposition to the Will of God, from dependence they aimed at independence.

The fall of Adam and Eve was different; instead of a complete revolt of the will against the Will of God, it was an inclination away from God's Will in one particular, a transgression of a commandment, not an act of rebellion.

The revolt of the will against God is a deliberate resistance to the just and holy laws which He has laid down, and it attacks the immutable order He has appointed as the relation between Himself and His creatures. It is also a wilful attempt to change the destiny of the creature.

Thus Satan rebelled through pride, dissatisfied with what God had ordained as to his place in the hierarchy of created intelligences. He desired to be higher or different from what he was. His rebellion was against the supremacy of God.

3. Now it is but exceptional to find man wilfully, knowing what he is about, rise up in open and deliberate rebellion against God; nevertheless, such revolt is found to be among men, though it may be hoped not always, or not often _conscious_ revolt. Those rebel against God who--

(_a_) Profess _Atheism_. They deny His existence, His law, His providence. God has put in every conscience a witness to His being, to His law, to His providence, and to profess Atheism is not only to reject revelation, but to resist the inner testimony of the Conscience. It is incipient, encouraged, and becomes habitual, till the whole attitude of the inner nature is one of antagonism to God.

(_b_) Who resist _God's moral law_. Men may be ready to admit that there is a God in Heaven, but as His law limits and controls their liberty, they strive against the restraints He imposes on them, and submit only to such laws as they are forced by the law of the land, or by social society to observe. They cast God out of their consciences.

(_c_) Who resist _God's truth_. Men may accept the fact that God exists in Heaven, and that He has imposed on men a moral law, but they reject His revelation regarding the facts of the Faith, the articles of the Creed, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Commission to the Church, the Sacraments. All wilful resistance to the faith as taught by the Church, the depository of Revelation, is thus a rebellion against God.

(_d_) Who resist _God's Church_. The Church is the kingdom of God on earth, and all schism is a revolt against His authority as committed to His Church, and in as far as it is _conscious_ and deliberate, is rebellion against God, different only in degree to that of Satan and his apostate angels in Heaven. Where this is in ignorance, it is of course otherwise. God will always consider the imperfection of man's knowledge, and if a man resists His truth, His moral law, His Church, through invincible ignorance, He will excuse such rebellion.

Third Wednesday in Lent.

_THE NATURE OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have considered the first and most terrible Sin, that of the Revolt of the creature against the Creator. We might indeed consider all transgression as a rebellion of the will against the Divine Will, but it is not always so. It is not a rebellion of the will altogether, and consciously against God as Ruler, but it is a transgression of a single command, either through stress of temptation or through carelessness. It may, however, be deliberate and wilful, a transgression of one law, but without the intention of stepping into absolute and acknowledged hostility to God.

2. We sin against God's commandment, either--

(_a_) By _thought_, when we voluntarily and with deliberation consider, and take pleasure in considering, those things which we know to be forbidden by God. The thought of evil is not necessarily sinful, nor is the emotion of pleasure that follows on the thought, _unless harboured_. We cannot avoid the knowledge of evil, nor can we help the sense of pleasure which is due to the corruption of our nature through original sin, but when the _will consents_ to the thought of evil, takes it up and gives it a lodgment in the heart, then it becomes Sin.

(_b_) By _desire_, when, knowing that a certain course of conduct, or a certain act is contrary to the Will of God, we feel a desire, and encourage that desire to take the course, to do the act which we know is wrong. We sin by wilfully harbouring an evil thought, and by wilfully harbouring an evil wish. For instance, we may desire that someone who has injured us may meet with some accident, or not recover from some sickness. The thought of such a thing must at once be put aside, lest it should breed the wish that so it might be.

(_c_) By _speech_, when knowingly words are uttered either (1) contrary to truth; (2) contrary to charity; (3) contrary to religion.

1. God is truth, and loveth truth, and all falsehood is abominable in His sight. As children of God we must seek ever to be open and truthful, avoiding evasions of the truth, and perversions of the truth, and denials of the truth. That is to say, avoiding the obligation of speaking the truth exactly when it is required; twisting the truth about so as to alter its appearance and give it a look other than it should have--a dressing up of the truth, denial of the truth, knowing what we are doing. Satan is a liar, and the father of lies.

2. Contrary to charity. We sin when we speak words that are unkind, even if they be true. We have no right to reveal what we know, and to publish abroad the infirmities, the errors, the faults of our neighbours, unless we are called upon to do so for some justifiable cause. All backbiting, slandering, evil-speaking, is inspired by the Evil One, who stirs up strife, whereas God is the God of unity.

3. Contrary to religion. We sin when we speak against God's revealed truth and His Church. But we can also sin by holding our tongues when we ought to speak. When we hear error proclaimed we are bound to stand up for the truth; not to do so is to neglect a plain duty, for God has made us all missionaries of His Gospel, soldiers in His army, to advance His kingdom by example and by precept, and we are bound by our allegiance to Him to use our best endeavours to dissipate error and remove prejudice.

Third Thursday in Lent.

_THE NATURE OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have seen how that we can sin against God's Commandments, by thought, and by word. We can also sin against Him by act, and by omission. We daily say, "We have offended against Thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done."

We will therefore now consider sins of _commission_ and sins of _omission_.

2. We commit sins of the first sort, that is, we are guilty of _sins of commission_, when we do anything, when we adopt any course of conduct, knowing it to be forbidden by God. It seems hardly necessary to say much about such sins, as they are obvious to all. It is perhaps only necessary to say that we are guilty of sins of commission, when we transgress any of the Commandments of God _in the spirit_, as well as in the letter. Our Lord shews us that the Commandments are expanded under the Gospel to include much more than appears on the surface. Consequently any little act of unkindness, any trifling with sensuality, any over-indulgence in eating or drinking, any disrespectful treatment of those who are in authority, are sins of commission, though they are not against the written words of the law. It is therefore right for us to consider what is implied by the written law, and to measure our conduct and weigh our acts by the spirit of charity, by first principles of justice, and then it will be found that we have allowed ourselves many things which are contrary to the spirit of the Gospel. "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth." (Rom. xiv. 22.)

3. We use much less circumspection about _sins of omission_. It is therefore advisable to consider them more carefully.

We sin by omission when we omit to do those things which

(_a_) We are commanded by the Law of God.

(_b_) Our Consciences advise.

(_c_) We are commanded to do by those set in authority over us.

(_d_) We are required to do by the State, or social law.

(_a_) Now it must never be forgotten that our duties as Christians are not merely _negative_, to abstain from this and not to do that, but are _positive_, to advance the Kingdom of God, and work out our own salvation. Our Lord, in the parable of the unprofitable servant who hid his treasure, shews us this. We must try to discover what active work in His Kingdom He has ordained for us to accomplish, and then do it with all our might. No man has any right to live in idleness. He must do something either for God, or for his fellow men.

(_b_) We must obey the promptings of our Conscience. If Conscience urges, and we neglect to obey it, we are neglecting the voice of God.

(_c_) We are bound to obey and execute the commands of those set over us, parents, guardians, masters. If in authority, and they require us to do something, then we cannot omit doing what is ordered without incurring sin; for all authority devolves from God, and we are responsible to God for the way in which we fulfil our duties under those set over us. We must obey _readily_, _cheerfully_, and _exactly_.

(_d_) We are members of the State, and to the laws of the State we are morally bound to give obedience; all organizations, the family, society, the State, are divine in origin, and we cannot revolt against any one of these without lesion of the Spirit of Unity which makes all society possible, and that is the Divine Spirit. It is only when a social or a State law is clearly contrary to revealed Divine law, that disobedience is permissible.

Third Friday in Lent.

_SOURCES OF SIN._

1. We have now considered the Nature of Sin, and shewn that it is essentially a revolt against God, either complete and conscious against God Himself, or particular, against some commandment of God.

We will now see whence Sin arises.

There are _interior_ and _exterior_ sources of Sin.

2. We will take, first, the interior sources of Sin. These are three--(_a_) Culpable ignorance; (_b_) Human fragility; (_c_) Malice.

3. _Culpable ignorance._ A man is guilty when he commits an act which is sinful, or omits to fulfil a duty, not knowing that the act is sinful, or that the duty is obligatory, through ignorance, but through ignorance which is voluntary, because he has neglected to learn what is his duty and what are the commandments of God, or else, because having learnt, he has allowed his knowledge to lapse, and he no longer keeps in mind what he once learnt; or else, because by trifling with his conscience he has so confused it that it no longer speaks distinctly and emphatically, telling him what to do and what to avoid. Consequently, we are bound to use our best endeavours to learn exactly what is the Will of God, and having learnt to keep in mind what has been acquired, and so promptly, and without prevarication, to obey our consciences that they may not become to us uncertain in their utterances.

We may be, and we shall be, excused if we have sinned through involuntary ignorance, but not if we have neglected the opportunities placed in our way of learning our duty.

4. _Human frailty._ The weakness of our mortal nature is prone to let us be drawn away into evil, either through--

(_a_) The violence of temptation; or

(_b_) The weakness of our resolution; or

(_c_) The force of bad habit; or

(_d_) The warmth and concupiscence of imagination.

5. _Temptation is strong._ Temptations are from without and from within. It is necessary to recognize the fact that we are being tempted in order that we may be prepared to resist. Half the sins fallen into are committed before we have realized that we are in temptation. Therefore we pray that we may not be led into temptation.

_Our resolutions are weak._ Some wills are much weaker than others. Nothing can be a greater blessing than to have a strong will rightly directed. A strong will perverted to evil is a great evil; but so also, and only a little less so, is to have a feeble will devoid of resolution. This is what most have, poor, crippled, infirm wills, and we must strive after God's strengthening grace to brace and nerve these limp wills, so that we may have the will to do after God's good pleasure. Half the sins, indeed, more than half the sins, committed are committed, not from deliberate wickedness of the will, but from infirmity of the will, which has not the strength to stand against temptation.

_The force of bad habits_ is very great. We say that habit becomes a second nature. If we have allowed a bad habit to grow, it requires great resolution and Divine grace to enable us to cast it off.

_The warmth of imagination_ which unfolds pictures before the mind encouraging to evil. Imagination is a faculty that may be of great service to us, but it is also one that may lead us into danger. Many a sin is committed out of curiosity. It was curiosity that led to the first transgression.

6. _Malice._ The sin committed out of malice is the most condemnable of all, for it issues from a _will_ that is corrupted and resolved on disobedience. In temptation, through our frailty that leads to fall, the will is overcome; it may wish the good, but be powerless to take the right course; but where the will is set determinately on evil, there the sin is of the worst kind conceivable. This is the condition of Satan, one of continuous and complete revolt against God out of hatred of what is good.

Third Saturday in Lent.

_TEMPTATIONS TO SIN._

1. There are three exterior sources whence temptation arises. As we have seen, there are springs of temptation in our own selves, but we are also subjected to temptation from without. There are, (_a_) The Devil who seeks our destruction; (_b_) Created beings that seek to draw us from God to make of them our ends; (_c_) The world that endeavours to bring us down to obedience to its low tone of morality instead of following the high course as indicated by revelation.

(_a_) The devil walketh about as a roaring lion, says S. Peter, seeking whom he may devour. We do not know for certain the reasons why Satan so diligently seeks man's destruction, but they are probably _jealousy_, because man is created and called to occupy those places in Heaven which he and his apostate host have lost through their rebellion. They are filled with envy and spite against us, that we should attain to eternal blessedness, whereas they have lost it, and are doomed to eternal misery. Another cause is certainly _malice_, hatred against God; Satan and his host know what God has designed for man, and know what God has done for man, and because they have set their wills in antagonism against God, they ever seek out of malignant hatred to mar God's work and undo His ends. A thoroughly bad man takes a malicious delight in making others as bad as himself, and the devils feel this same inclination in a heightened degree. Another cause is the _pride_ of the evil spirits. They are in warfare against God, and they feel a sense of triumph when they are able through man's free will to obtain the fall and degradation of one of God's noblest creatures. It flatters their pride to be able to gain something like a victory over God.

(_b_) Created beings endeavour to draw us from God, to fix our ambitions, our affections, on them. Or rather it may be said that we are tempted to forget our true end and aim, allured by the beauty and attractiveness of the creatures of God, to set our hearts and minds on them instead of on the Creator. We are surrounded by God's good things of creation, but we must look up through nature to God Himself, not let nature arrest our attention. So with human beings, we should love them indeed, but not let love of them take off our hearts from the supreme love of all, that should be given to God. We are guilty of loving the creature above the Creator whenever we allow our love for men, or for things of this world, to make us give up religious duties, cease to care for things spiritual, and to engross our thoughts.

(_c_) The world endeavours to draw away our allegiance from God to it. The world has formed its own moral code, an easy one, indulgent to our corrupt nature, it glosses over faults, and permits laxity. It does not enforce self-denial, but, on the other hand, encourages indulgence and extravagance. A very great number of people take public opinion as their rule of life, and so long as they conform their lives to what society expects and demands, regard themselves as in the way of salvation. Now the social code is well enough as far as it goes, but it is not intended to be the supreme code. The law of God is that which we must obey first, and that always points out to us a higher life, a purer life, and an unselfish one, whereas the world insists on a life which is selfish, and without any noble aims.

Third Sunday in Lent.

_THE GENESIS OF SIN._

1. We will now consider the way in which Sin is engendered, and takes upon it form and guilt. As already said, the knowledge of Sin is not in itself sinful. Nor is the sensation of pleasure that arises on the occurrence of a sinful suggestion necessarily so. Sin does not spring into deadly reality till the will has given its consent.

2. The _intelligence_ proposes the evil thought to the will; it counsels the will to agree to some sensible good, which it sees, to the disobedience of a divine law, the existence of which it recognizes.

That is to say, we see that a course of action lies open to us, which, as we admit is forbidden by God's law, yet this course of action will, we feel assured, bring to us some great advantage. For instance, a manufacturer sees how that, by the adulteration of his goods in a certain manner, not liable to detection, he may be able to save himself several thousand pounds, which sum he will net as a profit. Having seen his opportunity, he either accepts it or he rejects it; he turns the suggestion of his mind into a sin, or an occasion of victory over temptation.

3. The _imagination_ represents in lively colours to the will the charms, the delights of some action which the Conscience recognizes as forbidden. Not only so, but the imagination exaggerates these charms, these delights, so as to form a most alluring picture which the will has a difficulty in rejecting.

4. _Ignorance_ conceals from the will the inherent evil of a course of action proposed. A Conscience that is not keenly alert to duty, and has not been disciplined in right, sees a course of conduct before it, and sees that it will conduce to great advantage, but is too blunt or gross to be able to distinguish any right or wrong in it. It acts in obedience to the impulse to gain a promising temporal end, without perception of the true nature of the act. This often happens. We do not have our eyes opened to what we have done till after the thing is done, and then, and then only, discover how wrongly we have acted.

5. _Bad habit_ encourages the will to consent to evil by recalling the pleasure or advantages obtained by past yielding to temptation, and invites it to a continuance. Moreover bad habit blunts Conscience, and removes all sharpness of perception as to the right or wrong of an act. Bad habits are easily acquired, and when once they get hold of a man are eradicated with difficulty. Everyone therefore should be watchful against the beginnings of a habit that may be bad, that is not assuredly good, for what may be bad will in the long-run become actually bad. Bad habit grows through carelessness, and a constant watch against its rooting itself and ramifying must be maintained.

6. We have seen now how that the will is urged to consent to evil, either through the intelligence advising it, or the imagination alluring to it, or through ignorance, blinding to its nature, or through bad habit, which has weakened the power of resistance in the will. Now Sin only begins when the will has given consent. S. James says, "Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." (S. James i. 14, 15.) First the _suggestion_ of Sin comes from the Intelligence, or from the imagination. Then the _will consents_ to the suggestion. Sin is then in conception. Then it is carried forth into _execution_. Sin is accomplished. It has become a fatal fact. Lastly comes the judgment on sin, the result that follows sin as a shadow follows a body--Death. "The wages of sin are death." "By sin came death."

We must therefore keep a watchful guard over the thoughts and imaginations, and let the will be under the absolute control of the Conscience, so that it may not give consent to the evil suggestion. If it has given consent, sin has begun to live; it may, however, again be checked before it proceeds to act.

Third Monday in Lent.

_ON ORIGINAL SIN._

1. The subject for meditation to-day shall be the nature and effects of Original Sin, which is that Sin committed by our first parents, and of which we inherit, _not the guilt of the act of Sin_, but the _consequences of the act_.

God is just, and God would not condemn to everlasting death men because their first parents had broken His commandment. But the consequences of Adam's sin passed on all his descendants. By his disobedience he had disturbed the Divine Order, lost his original innocence, introduced a dislocation into his nature. We will now consider what the results of that transgression were.

(_a_) It disturbed the direct relation of the soul to God. It obscured its vision of God, and all certainty as to God's Nature and Will. This we see from the history of mankind. We find that the vision of God by the soul was so clouded that men fell into ignorance of God, and into false conceptions relative to the Nature of God and the Will of God. All the wanderings of the human mind in idolatries and mythologies are the result of the loss of clear perception of God's Nature. Not only so, but the mistakes men made relative to the law of God, so that they did many things that were evil, believing them to be good, was the result of the obscuration of the spiritual vision so that it could not see what was the Will of God.

Again, all the errors and uncertainties into which men fell relative to the future state was due to the clouding of the spiritual eye, so that it could no longer see what was the Purpose of God relative to man.

(_b_) The intelligence was darkened. Adam and Eve saw what was before them, Death the consequence of Transgression, but allowed themselves to be confused by the pleadings of the serpent, disputing the consequences. Ever since, a confusion of the intelligence as to consequences resulting from acts has existed in men; a lack of sharp and decisive vision as to the relation of effect to cause, as to the relation of result to act.

The confusion and obfuscation of the intelligence is removed to a large extent by education, but only by such education as broadens the mind. A narrow, illiberal education may do much harm by throwing partial lights which tend the rather to confuse.

(_c_) The weakening of the human will. The will is not only inherently weakened by having given way to evil, but it is continuously weakened by the uncertainty it is in how to decide, by the darkening of the understanding, so that duties are not always clear, nor consequences certain. The will to do what is right is by no means strong, since Adam and Eve turned their will away from God; the human will has acquired a bent that inclines it not always to follow the right.

(_d_) And the undue elevation of sensuality tends to deceive the will and induce it to follow the appetites of the body instead of the promptings of the understanding. Adam and Eve went against Reason when they partook of the fruit of the tree to satisfy a carnal curiosity and gratify an animal appetite. Ever since then carnal curiosity and animal appetite have obtained a dominating power in man, composed of body, soul, and mind, quite out of proportion to what was purposed. This undue elevation of Sensuality leads man to seek the gratification of those appetites he shares with the beasts, at the expense of his intellectual and spiritual powers.

(_e_) One other result of the Fall affects man's body. God made man to be healthy, strong and happy. By his turning away from God, the source of life, strength and blessedness, he became liable to decay, sickness, pain, sorrow, and death.

2. We see, then, that the fall of man has led to the disturbance of man's nature, and it has left man in such a condition that of himself he is unable to attain to the knowledge of God and His Will, and unable to fulfil God's Will even when He knows it. Consequently he fell more or less completely under the dominion of the Evil One, who prompted to error, and to that of Sensuality, which promised happiness to man in the pursuit of his inferior appetites.

Third Tuesday in Lent.

_THE EVIDENCE FOR ORIGINAL SIN._

1. The existence of Original Sin in man is proved to us in the first place by our very constitution. We have only to look into our own selves to discern its presence. S. Paul, speaking of himself in his condition under the law, says, "When we were in the flesh, the motions of sin ... did work in our members." (Rom. vii. 5.) "That which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.... To will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do.... I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin that is in my members." Who does not know this truth by experience? Who has not felt the conflict; realized that there are different and opposing elements in his nature? There is a mixture of dignity and meanness, of nobility and baseness, of the knowledge of what is right and a love of what is evil, in all men. They have but to look steadily into themselves to see that it is so.

2. Scripture affirms the existence of Original Sin. "Man born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble ... who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." (Job xiv. 1, 4.) "Behold, I was shapen in wickedness, and in sin did my mother conceive me." (Ps. li. 5.) "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. v. 12.)

3. The Church has always taught the existence of Original Sin, and the Sacrament of Baptism, ever ministered, is a witness to this, for Baptism is the means whereby men pass out of a condition of natural incapacity to fulfil God's law into a state of grace in which they are able to do those things God has commanded. The Sacrament of Baptism was instituted as a corrective to Original Sin, to remedy the defects produced in man by his filiation from Adam.

By nature--that nature degraded and corrupted through the fall--we can do no good thing; but by Baptism we pass into the Kingdom of Grace, and therein are enabled to stand, are strengthened, enlightened, and cleansed.

4. Reason, moreover, assures us of the existence of Original Sin. In the first place, we know that God is good, and we cannot understand that a good God should have created man, the noblest of the works of creation, to suffering and misery. We feel assured, if we recognize God as good and loving to all His works, that He did not make man to be what he is, full of infirmities, ignorances, narrownesses, liable to suffering intensely acute, to continuous trouble, to decay, to diseases most painful, distressful in every way, loathsome, and finally to complete dissolution. Again, we have but to look at history, to read the daily records of crime in the papers, to see that there is a frightful amount of evil among men, and always has existed, and this cannot proceed from a good God.

We must either deny the goodness of God, and say that man has been created by a capricious Deity--a mixture of benevolence and malevolence, of goodness and of evil--_or else_, we must allow that God created men good, but that His purpose has been hindered, and partially made ineffectual through the introduction into man's nature of something that was alien to it at first. The introduction of this alien element can only be attributable to man himself, who, having a _free-will_, could turn away from the course ordained for Him by His Creator, could deflect from the direct line, could bend from the way of happiness to that of misery.

5. A state of Original Sin is not a condition of guilt for act done, but a condition of impotency or partial impotency towards good; and Baptism affords supernatural assistance towards the undoing of those bad effects produced by the Fall, and transmitted through all generations. It places man in such a condition that little by little he can recover himself, and be restored to the original condition of innocence, vigour, and vitality of the first man as he left the hands of God.

Fourth Wednesday in Lent.

_ACTUAL SIN._

1. Having seen what Original Sin is, we come now to Actual Sin. Original Sin, we have seen, was a partial paralysis of man's better nature, a confusion of his faculties, and a rendering him incapable of, by himself, attaining a recovery. It is a passive state of inability towards good, and of subjection to evil. Actual Sin is quite other--it consists in sinning voluntarily.

Original Sin is a hereditary condition; Actual Sin is personal. Original Sin is involuntary; Actual Sin is voluntary. Original Sin is a state; Actual Sin is an act which throws us into a state of sin.

A guilty act carries with it guilt to the soul of him who commits the act, but it may also entail a consequent state on others. For instance, a father by his vices may so corrupt his blood that his children have sickly constitutions. They inherit the _consequences_, but not the _guilt_. This is analogous to Original Sin, the state we are in through the fault of Adam. Or, again, a father may squander an ancestral estate. His children are born in penury, and are incapable of ever recovering what their father has lost. His is the guilt, theirs the condition into which his act has thrown them.

2. Actual Sin is of various degrees of guilt; according to the state of knowledge of him who commits it, or according to the heinousness of the sin committed, or according to the amount of deliberation and wilfulness with which it is committed. Where there is complete ignorance of the nature of the act, so long as that ignorance is not voluntary, there the guilt of the act is not mortal, though the act itself may be a grave offence. So also the manner in which the will gives its consent materially aggravates or lessens the guilt of a sin. If the act be known beforehand to be forbidden, and yet the will consents to it, it violates Conscience, and the guilt is grave; but when a transgression is the result of unpremeditation, a surprise, and the will has not had time given it to act, there the guilt is slight.

And once more, there is a difference in heinousness in sins. It is wrong to strike another violently; it is worse to strike with purpose so as to permanently injure.

3. Sin is a violation of the Commandments of God, and as such is incited to either by the Devil, who is the enemy of God, or by the carnal nature which desires its own ends regardless of what conduces to the exaltation of the superior nature, or by the world, which desires to lower the general moral tone of men to a vulgar and easy level. It is therefore a dereliction from God's Law, a turning away from God's Order, a choosing of what is either against His Will, or not wholly in accordance with His Will. It is therefore always evil, and always deserves punishment, and always leads to suffering.

God has set before man, as the end of his existence, the attainment of perfect happiness, by complete though gradual recovery from the effects of the Fall. Every sin is a slipping back into the condition from which we ought to strive ever to escape, if it be not, what it is in some cases, a going down into an even worse condition, by making our original sinful condition an excuse for becoming actually sinful.

4. For the avoidance of sin we need supernatural aid, and this is Divine Grace. By Baptism we are placed in the Spiritual Realm, in which we are furnished with sufficient help to enable us to resist all temptations, overcome all bad habits, discipline all inclinations till they take the direction of good in place of evil, and obtain a clear illumination of our intellect, so that we can see, and see distinctly, what is God's Will for us. Moreover, we obtain the faculty of judging proportions, and of estimating what is near and transitory at its proper value, as also what is far off and enduring. Naturally we over-estimate what is close before us and is temporal, and hardly see at all and value what is far off and eternal, but by the gift of Divine Grace our spiritual vision is enabled to judge distances and judge values correctly.

Fourth Thursday in Lent.

_THE CONDITIONS OF SIN._

1. Every sin is an act done by man endowed with free will, in the exercise of his freedom, and with consciousness what he is about. That is to say, certain conditions are requisite in order that an act may be really sinful, and these conditions are, a knowledge of what is proposed to be done, liberty to do it or to forbear, and the will engaged to accomplish what is proposed.

2. _Knowledge._ An act is only culpable when he who commits it knows what he is about, knows the character of his act, or has at all events a strong suspicion that the act is contrary to the law of God. This is what S. Paul repeatedly urges. "The law entered, that the offence might abound." "The motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." "Without the law sin was dead." The measure of sinfulness is largely the knowledge possessed by the doer of the deed. To such an extent is this the case, that S. Paul supposes the case of one who commits an act that is in itself harmless, but it becomes sin to him because he thinks it is forbidden.

A corollary to this is that the degree to which an act is sinful depends largely on the degree of our knowledge. For instance, to one who knows that it is his duty to God to attend public worship every Sunday it is sinful if he, without excuse, stays away; but the sin is by no means as great to him who has never been taught his duty to God, and thinks that going to Divine worship is optional, and is merely for the sake of hearing a sermon, which very probably, and perhaps reasonably, he thinks he can do without.

3. _Liberty._ An act is only culpable when the person who does the act is free to do it, or to refrain from doing it. It is only when the will is free that it can act so as to make what is done guilty or innocent.

Take the converse. A man may speak the truth, or give a large sum in charity, because he is forced to do this, not because he wishes to do it. He acts against his intention and desire. The act is good, but there is no merit in what he has done, for it is done under constraint. So it is possible that an act in itself wrong may be done under such overwhelming compulsion that all exercise of freedom and determination is impossible. If any freedom remains, if there be any chance of escape from doing what we know to be wrong, then it is, to us, more or less sinful, if we yield to force.

4. _Will._ This is the main faculty that determines the sinfulness of an act. If we will to do an act which is a violation of a commandment of God, or which may give occasion to the violation, then the consequence is mortal sin. An act done by a child before it has attained the use of its reason is not sinful, nor is an act done by anyone without the exercise of the power of determination sinful. Thus homicide is not murder. We may take what belongs to another person in ignorance that it belongs to another, or also, without the wish of defrauding another, and in either case the act is not sin.

The reason why eternal darkness and separation from God is possible to devils and man is that the will may become so turned away from God, and so diametrically opposed to Him, that the faintest stirring of a wish to return to obedience is absent. If any lost spirit could at any time repent, its salvation would be possible. Eternal death is due to the fact that men may become so alienated from the life that is in them, so full of hatred of good, that they cannot turn to God, and hereafter, when they view the consequences, may still never _will_ the return, but persevere in their rebellion and hatred of what is good.

It is consequently of the utmost importance that we should watch over our wills, and strive to bring them to perfect conformity with the Will of God, for in that alone lies our security, in that alone true blessedness.

Fourth Friday in Lent.

_CONDITIONS THAT DIMINISH GUILT._

1. We have seen that in order that sin may be deadly, it must have been committed with knowledge of what was proposed, in the exercise of liberty to act or not to act, and with deliberate determination of the will.

Now it is obvious that the same act may be very much less guilty in one man than in another according as these faculties exist in more or less activity.

We will now consider some of the more simple extenuating causes that may make a sin really to be--to the soul of him who has committed it--a fault only.

(_a_) _Excusable ignorance._ As has been pointed out, a man is only guilty of mortal sin, when he is ignorant that the act is forbidden. S. Paul says, "As many as have sinned without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." And our Lord Himself, "That servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required; and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (Luke xiii. 47, 48.) But the ignorance must be excusable, that is to say, he who is in ignorance must not be in _wilful_ ignorance.

(_b_) _Fear._ In certain circumstances the mind may be in such a state of alarm and disturbance that its power of judgment is paralyzed, and the will is overborne by the fear which has become dominant. It is said of those who are out of their minds that they are not accountable for their actions, and there are cases in which terror is so acute, and so overmastering, that a man or woman ceases to be morally responsible for what he or she does.

(_c_) _Compulsion._ As already shewn, liberty is essential to qualify an act as either culpable or not culpable to the person who is the agent. An act may be in itself wrong, but the guilt entailed on the soul of him who does it depends on whether he be a free agent or not. For instance, it often happened that a martyr was forced to offer incense to idols. The grains were thrust into his hand, and the hand was extended by violence over the fire of the altar. But as the soul of the martyr never yielded consent, no guilt of apostasy attached to it.

(_d_) _Inadvertence_, or excusable want of attention. It does often happen that a wrong act is done before we really know what we are about. It is done without premeditation. We are of course bound to be ever on our guard against temptation; but that sin into which we have fallen _unintentionally_ does not carry with it the same guilt to the soul as if it had been done with deliberation. "Be not high-minded, but fear," says the Apostle. The Evil One is ever on the watch to entrap us when unprepared into sin. And though a sin committed inadvertently may not be mortally sinful, yet it may, and probably will, carry with it the temporal consequences just the same as if it had been committed deliberately. "Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." S. Peter denied his Master partly through fear, partly through inadvertence, he was caught off his guard. We stand often without any sight of or suspicion of the temptation on the brink of which we are, and with a touch we are over. As we are repeatedly warned to caution and watchfulness, such inadvertence does not wholly excuse us. We are _bound_ to be ever prepared, nevertheless the nature of man is weak and frail.

2. Let no man seek to excuse himself for his sins. The remarks made are calculated to comfort the distressed and agonized soul that finds itself fallen into sin, which it hates, and is not intended to encourage a comfortable assurance of peace when there is no peace, and to engage to lack of watchfulness, and want of contrition.

Fourth Saturday in Lent.

_CONDITIONS THAT AGGRAVATE GUILT._

As there are certain conditions that remove the gravity of guilt attaching to mortal sin, so, on the other hand, are there certain conditions that aggravate the culpability of an act against God's will, conditions that may cause a sin, not in itself heinous, to become deadly in its consequences to the soul. These conditions shall now be taken into consideration. They are four, just as there were four conditions that lessened guilt.

The conditions are these:--

(_a_) _An error of Conscience_, which leads the person committing an act, to believe that an act is forbidden by God, which really is harmless or allowable, and he nevertheless commits the act wilfully. Believing a course to be sinful, he takes it deliberately. The course may not be in itself wrong, but in that he thinks it wrong, and wilfully elects to take it, believing that he is going against the Will of God, he sins mortally. This we can see at once, for it is a deliberate revolt of the will against what is believed to be God's Will, and it is the setting of the will in opposition to God which is the condition that makes sin to be mortal.

(_b_) _The evil of the end proposed._ That is to say, if anyone allows himself to do an act in itself harmless, or permissible, in order to attain to an evil end, then the act, though in itself harmless and permissible, becomes exceeding sinful. The end proposed poisons the whole course of conduct pursued. In the former case a harmless act is made deadly in its consequences through antecedent ignorance, in this case through subsequent evil. In both cases there is revolt of the will against God. He who desires an evil of any kind, knowing that it is evil, _i.e._, that it is against the law of God, and deliberately compasses that end, makes every step he takes in the course whereby he reaches that end, however indifferent they may be in themselves, taken by themselves, to be mortally sinful to him. This is clear, because throughout he is acting with a will in opposition, and in known opposition, to the Will of God.

(_c_) _Contempt of the law or Lawgiver._ An act done by man in disregard of God's law, with indifference to what God wills, is in itself mortally sinful. No man has any right to disregard God's law, which is the rule the Creator has impressed on His intelligent creatures, and no man may be indifferent to God, Who has given His law as the rule of well-being for the creatures He has made. To put God out of the thoughts, and to act as if there were no God Who has expressed His Will is practical Atheism. With the lips he who so acts may indeed confess Him but in acts deny Him. Neglect and disregard of God may, indeed, be due to circumstances over which man has no control--defective teaching in childhood, for instance--but of this we are not speaking, but of such cases where a man has been taught about God and His Will, and deliberately puts such considerations aside, and does not allow them to influence his conduct.

(_d_) _The circumstances of the case._ An act, harmless or permissible in itself, may yet be sinful, and gravely sinful, if the circumstances be such as to make it the occasion of evil; for instance, if it lead on to the formation of a bad habit; or if it be the occasion of grave scandal. Such was the case of eating meat offered to idols. In itself it was innocent, but he who ate meat so offered before weak brethren, knowing that he was causing injury to their consciences, thereby defiled his own conscience. In the former case we have an act made sinful through disregard of the Lawgiver, in this through disregard of the consequences to ourselves or to others.

Fourth Sunday in Lent.

_ON FREE WILL._

1. We have seen throughout how that the exercise of the Will is that which gives character to an act, stamping on it its mark of sin or righteousness, in as far as it affects the individual Conscience.

We will now look at the Human Will, and consider how it operates.

An object is presented to it, and it can determine with relation to it in three different ways.

(_a_) It can _consent_ to it. If the object be evil, and it consent to it, then it becomes guilty, it sins. This is what has been insisted on throughout, that the Will of man is the determining quality making a thing to be sinful or not to the individual Conscience.

The imagination or the intelligence presents to the Will a certain picture, proposes a certain act, and the Conscience then pronounces on the right or wrong of what is presented and proposed. Then the Will forms its decision. If it consents to what is suggested, and the Conscience has informed it that this is _wrong_, then it makes a deliberate act of separation from and revolt against God.

(_b_) It can _resist_, it can absolutely refuse to take the course indicated, when the Conscience has pointed out that the course is contrary to what God has ordered. When the Will thus deliberately resists the evil suggestion, it not only does not sin, but it performs a good and meritorious act. It has taken the side of God, and such an act of positive adhesion to God is rewarded by God, and strengthens the Will in a right course.

When we say that an act of adhesion to God is meritorious, we do not mean that any act of man unassisted by grace can deserve a reward, but that God will reward man if he, by an exercise of free will, ranges himself on His side, just as surely as He will punish man if he, by an exercise of his free will, ranges himself against Him.

The devils, by an exercise of free will, rebelled, and lost happiness. The good angels, by an exercise of free will, remained faithful, and deserved and retained Beatitude. So man has to decide. God's grace does not constrain, it encourages and helps, but it forces no man to take the course that leads to life. The determination lies with man, and that determination must be made by an exercise of the Will.

(_c_) It may remain _passive_, neither consenting nor resisting. Now, the Will of man is given to him as a determining power, and no man has any right to bury this talent. Free Will is the best gift God gave to man, and though it has been weakened by his fall, yet it can be brought again to full vigour and energy by the exercise of it in one direction or the other. The rudder is given to the ship that by means thereof it may be steered. So the Will is given to man that thereby he may be directed. No good steersman will desert the wheel and let the vessel drive before the wind and become a prey to the waves, and no man may leave the determination of his course to accident, without moral deterioration. We must strive to brace the Will so as to decide according to judgment and Conscience, and every such decision gives tone and force to the Will.

2. There are certain cases in which it is advisable to _avoid_ instead of _resisting_ temptation. When we know that circumstances are strong against us, and we know that our Wills have not acquired that nerve and independence which will enable us manfully and persistently to resist, then the judgment advises avoidance of the danger.

This is especially the case in all such temptations as affect modesty. We must never run into temptation, and where we are doubtful, and the way of avoidance is possible, there we do well to take it.

Fourth Monday in Lent.

_THE DETERMINATION OF THE WILL._

We have seen now what the Free Will in man can do. It can choose, or refuse, or remain inert.